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Change in width/imaging with Windows Shared Mode Sample Rate?

jsvaldez

New Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2022
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Hi all,

Still pretty new here, but I wanted some insight into a phenomenon I was noticing with some new gear.

To try to make it as short as possible, I just got a Monolith 887 and SU-8s to upgrade from my ifi Hip Dac that I had hooked up to my PC, as well as a Hidizs S9 Pro for portable streaming from my phone and laptop. Without thinking, I had set my playback sample rate on shared mode to 24 / 192 since that's the max available on Qobuz via Wasapi. I use Peace EQ APO to EQ my headphones, so I don't really ever use Exclusive Mode.

However, I noticed that the imaging/width of my playback was reduced on my new 887/SU-8s stack, especially regarding the airiness (e.g. things like cymbals were quieter/softer, positioning of instruments felt tighter) after testing back and forth between my three different devices. After trying to figure out what the problem was, I realized that while I had set the SU-8s sample rate as 24/192 in shared mode, while the other devices were set for 32/48 in shared mode (the default). After switching the SU-8s sample rate back to the default 32/48, the issue was resolved.

I took a look at the big Windows Audio Quality thread and used EAPO to disable the original APOs too. But I was wondering, is there a "science" to what I was experiencing with this? Why would changing the sample rate for shared mode affect my experienced sound stage even though it was set above the playback sample rate of the songs I was listening to?

Also, are there any options for parametric EQ-ing that will work with Wasapi exclusive mode?
 
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